Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method therefor, and a storage medium storage.
Description of the Related Art
There is known an MFP which is an information processing apparatus carrying out data communications with communication apparatuses such as PCs (personal computers). The MFP carries out data communications with the communication apparatuses to, for example, receive print data for executing a print job from the communication apparatuses and also cause the communication apparatuses to display, for example, setting information on the MFP. The MFP is connected to both of a local network and a global network and carries out data communications with the communication apparatuses connected to those networks. In the local network, the MFP carries out data communications with only the communication apparatuses connected to the MFP within a limited area such as an office without using a public network such as the Internet. On the other hand, in the global network, the MFP carries out data communications with communication apparatuses connected to the public network.
In communications over the global network, global IP addresses uniquely assigned to respective apparatuses are used to identify the party at the end of communication. A global IP address unique to an MFP and for identifying the MFP is assigned to the MFP connected to the global network, and the global IP address of the MFP is exposed to an indefinite number of communication apparatuses connected to the global network. For this reason, there may be a situation in which a malicious user accesses the MFP by using the global IP address of the MFP which is exposed to the public and sees setting information on the MFP. To address this problem, there has conventionally been a technique that restricts provision of some information in a case where a global IP address is assigned to the MFP (see, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-119581). This technique makes it possible to avoid a situation in which setting information on the MFP is leaked out.
The technique described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-119581 above would cause a disadvantage when invalid execution data is received via the public network although a situation in which setting information on the MFP is lead out can be avoided. For example, when a malicious user sends a large amount of invalid print data to the MFP by using a global IP address of the MFP which is exposed to the public, the MFP performs printing on all of the print data it has received, and as a result, a large amount of unnecessary prints are produced. Namely, the conventional MFP cannot reduce damage caused by invalid execution data received via the public network.